In his novel, Gaines demonstrates that America’s South in the 1940s was so ingrained with racial prejudice that even the most educated of black men, Grant Wiggins, feels hopeless to overcome white oppression.

Because Grant is continually emasculated in society, he finds it difficult to be a mentor to Jefferson, and also feels powerless against prevailing white oppression. When Grant goes to visit Pichot’s plantation he has to wait in the kitchen with the hired help. This emasculates Grant because he feels like less of a man because he has to stay in the kitchen like a hog. Grant also is emasculated when he asks his professor in college for a book and the professor has to pull lots of strings to get it from the white library. Because of all of these emasculatory incidences, Grant finds it difficult to mentor Jefferson.

Despite his own high level of education, Grant’s frequent witness to the racial inequality at work in the south’s educational system reinforces his own sense of despair and hopelessness. When Grant goes to the store to buy a radio, he encounters racial inequality from the store clerk, “She started up the aisle toward the cash register, but just about then another white woman came into the store. The clerk set the radio beside the cash register and went to see what the white woman wanted” (Gaines 176).

This blatant act of racism reinforces Grant’s sense of despair and hopelessness. He feels as though he will never move up above being just another black man. Grant also sees racism when the superintendent comes to check on his school. The superintendent checks on the children’s hygiene more than their academic skills, and when he does test their academic skills he picks on the less smart children. Grant notices this and takes offense to it, but he is not able to say anything though because he is black. Grant sure gets hopeless.